Vol. 16 No. 3
Factors of paddy grain and seed production at farm level in the Indo-Gangetic basin of West Bengal
Author(s): M. S. SABLE, A. K. NANDI AND R. BISWAS
Abstract: Paddy contributes 90 percent food grains in the total food basket of West Bengal. Due to wide agro-ecological variations and traditional food habits, the farmers practiced paddy cultivation almost three seasons in high intensity cropping zones of lower Indo-Gangatic Basin. As it is a high volume low value food grain, the availability of quality seeds purely depends on either farm-saved or public institutions. The objective of this study is to identify the responsible factors for HYVs paddy seed production, apart from commercial grain production for increasing seed replacement rates, switching from farm-saved seeds to quality seeds in different locations, both in traditional (long history of rice-rice sequence) and non-traditional paddy dominating areas, as second or third crop per year. Two hundred samples have been selected from fourteen villages of eight CD blocks, two from each district based on probability proportional to net cropped area and at the ultimate stage with SRSWOR from four districts located each side of Lower Indo Gangetic Basin. Multivariate LSQ regression, considering the linear, linear logarithm, Cobb- Douglass production function and MahalanobisD2 statistics has been used for the analysis of important predictors and the contribution of the significant predictors in discriminating the yield of commercial grain and seed production. Both winter and summer season are suitable for the seed production where balanced doses of fertilizers, human labour and plant protection chemicals are important factors, but the traditional belt is more advantageous than the non-traditional belts. On the other hand, for summer season, new alluvium Nadia district is suitable for seed productions. In both seasons the contribution of human labour and balanced doses of fertilizers can able to discriminate between high and low yielding groups. For the interest of cost effective higher productivity, the seed based entrepreneurs’ may be developed within the state at present with existing resources to overcome the problems of quality seed in time.
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